Staffordshire Schools Football Association

Staffordshire School's FA's County sides had unprecedented success last season lifting three trophies, one national and two regional as well as reaching three semi finals. The players did the Association proud and the journey starts all over again in July when the first trials will be held.

Dates and venues, nomination forms and information will be sent out to schools in the next 10 days or so.  There are opportunities for the most talented players to represent their County and play at an excellent level on good grounds and in a controlled disciplined environment.

It is hoped that schools will nominate their best players and that all schools will consider sending players ,as currently only about 60% of schools make nominations, which means that some players miss the chance to play county football. Last years national champions the Under 16 Boys had five players in their debut season so each team is selected on merit and not on past performance.

The north of the County is an area where there is the largest population and urban area but the smallest number of nominating schools.

County Football is a fantastic experience and one which should be enjoyed if your son or daughter is talened enough.

Details will be posted here in due course.

The Association will be running a competition for Primary Schools in the 17-18 season. The secondary competitions have proved to be very successful and the 9 v 9 Cup compettion will begin in September. Entry forms will go out in the next week or so and the final of the competition will be at St Geroges Park in April.

Staffordshire School's FA have received some funding to try and establish this competition and so for the first year there will be no entry fee. The number of entrants will also determine the format but it is hoped that it may be big enough to be in a similiar format to the other competitions.

Entry forms for the Individual Schools competitions have been sent to schools this week. If you have not received this by e mail then please make contact through the website and one will be e mailed to your school.

The Staffordshire School's FA season came to a close last night in the grand setting of the indoor arena at St Georges Park.. The Under 16 girls took on Nottinghamshire in the semi final of the MCF cup and reserved their last game of the season to put in their most ineffectual performance of the year.

The girls just never got going and despite being awarded a penalty early in the game and missing it the Staffordshire girls were lacklustre and their usual game of passing and moving deserted them. They could not retain the ball for any period of time and fell behind midway through the first half and had it not been for two good saves from Tiff Whelan the game would have been over at half time.

The girls showed a marked improvement in the second half and asked Nottinghamshire some questions especially after Tasia Brough headed home a precise free kick from skipper Molly Bruton. The next ten minutes showed what Staffordshire were capable of and with Demi MacCalliog driving them on from midfield they looked more like their oldselves . With three minutes left on the clock Staffordshire lost possession and a great through ball left the back line exposed and a crisp shot left Grace Tolmie with no chance. As Staffordshire pressed for an equaliser Nottinghamshire broke away to finish the job with a third goal.

The Staffordshire girls have performed really well over the past four years and those girls who will be leaving us go with the best wished of the Association whilst the Y10 girls will be trying to go one step further next season.

Staffordshire Under 14 Girls were declared champions last night and gained the MCF title for the second time in three years. Great credit must go to the group who have had a wonderful season and the year 8 girls will be available for a second campaign whilst the year 9 girls will move up to challenge for a place in next seasons under 16 squad.

The Association wishes to place on record its thanks to the parents of the girls for their outstanding support. They have been wonderfully supportive of the Association and each other and there is a great family feeling when this group meet. We look forward to providing opportunities for girls to play County football next season and for the forseeable future despite the best efforts of the FA to put a stop to it.

The Under 18 boys made it a night to remember with a resounding 5-2 win over Lincolnshire at Stafford Town FC in the MCF Final.. The Staffordshire boys, having only suffered one defeat, were determined to end their season on a high and very unusually for an Under 18 squad only 18 boys were involved all season and 2 only made one appearence. Skipper Joe Minton was playing his last game for Staffordshire having been involved since an Under 14 and was the only player in the squad who had achieved that milestone.

The Staffordshire boys looked shaky in the opening exchanges of the game and despite causing Lincolnshire a few problems they were struggling to find their normal rhythmn. A scrappy game ensued but when Josh Wilson smashed in the first goal with a sweetly struck drive there only looked to be one winner.

1-0 at half time.

Staffordshire had the best possible start in the second half when Joe Hartshorne,whose strong running caused the Lincolnshire rearguard problems all night, was felled in the area. He got up to cooly slot the ball past a static keeper to double the lead. Staffordshire continued to press forward in search of the goal to kill the game off and the introduction of Will Byers heaped further woe onto the Lincolnshire rearguard as he ran rampant down the right flank.

However in a rare foray the impeccable pairing of Connor Grant and Joe Minton were undone and the Lincolnshire forward clipped home a sweet strike from twelve yards. Staffordshire seemed to take this as an affront to their superiority and the responded superbly with goals from Joe Hartshorne and Tom Edge  to kill the tie off.

Lincolnshire who stuck to their task manfully throughout responded well and scored a second in the last minute but again Staffordshire responded immediately through Tom Riley to run out the winners by 5-2.

Joe Minton collected the trophy from MCF Chairman Peter Jordan to cap off an exceptional evening when two titles came the way of Staffordshire Schools.

As with all of the other teams we are indebted to the parents for their support as without you we would struggle, The Association wishes all of the boys who are moving on the very best of luck in the future. Tom Edge and Joe Minton travel over the pond to take up scholarships in American Universities, Aidan Stone begins a professional career with Burnley FC and the other boys are heading off to universities with our very best wishes for the future. You will always be welcome in Staffordshire.

Manager David Ebbersson  has named the girls below to be invited to be part of the Stafffordshire SFA Under 14 girls squad for the forthcoming season. The girls who have been unsuccesful but who have been involved in the trial process will be invited to  number of coaching/traing events once a venue has ben secured.

The standard of player improves year on year and David will be writing to those who have missed out on selection and offering some feedback on where the girls can hopefully improve.

Please contact the website with acceptance of the invitation and incluse DOB and a mobile contact number.

Managers Dan Dawson and Gary Spruce have named rhe boys below as members of the Under 14 Boys squad for the forthcoming season. Congratulations to all the boys selected and commiserations to those who have not made the cut this year.

The match co-ordinator Mark Warren will be in touch with match arrangements fixtures etc in due course.

All parents need to contact the website to accept the invitation and provide a mobile number please.

The girls named below have been selected to represent Staffordshire Schools FA for the forthcoming season.

Can all parents check that the school is correct and send confirmation to the website and include a mobile phone number and date of birth.. The match co-ordiator s Julie and Tim will be in contact in due course.

The boys named below are invited to be part of the Staffordshire schools'FootballAssociation squad for season 2016-17.

Congratulations to the boys selected and commiserations to those who have missed out this time. The selection process was extremely difficult as there were so many boys who were talented and the margins were so fine. All parents of the succcessful boys will be contacted by the match co-ordinator with details regarding games and expectations etc. The first confirmed fixture is the annual match against Repton School on Saturday the 8th of October when they will play the schools' Under 16 XI.

@staffsschoolsfa will allow all to follow what is going on and will supplement the information available on the website.

Follow the account which is being run by Under 15 team Manager Bailey Evans.